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Survivor Millennials vs. Gen X Episode 9 Recap, Edgic and Analysis

Survivor Millennials vs. Gen X continues to twist and turn in all directions and although the episode ended in the exact outcome that this site predicted last week, there was still more than enough to talk about from episode 9 of the hit TV show’s thirty-third season, titled “Still Throwin’ Punches”. Let’s get right into the action.

Well as if we had somehow forgotten how foolish Taylor was, the start of this episode reminded us instantanousely of how boneheaded the snowboard instructor can be. “Best idea ever!” Taylor exclaimed to himself as he continued to eat his stolen food that he had hidden beneath the sand. “Hahaha I’m the best” He said as he continued to eat. Well that’s cool Taylor, as you continue to make yourself a bigger target, there’s another player on this season named Jay who is doing everything he can to rebuild his relationships and climb back up the pyramid.

Is Jay The Best Player Out There?

Last episode Jay’s closest ally in the game, Michelle, was voted off the island. So this episode, naturally Jay should have been mad. But instead of getting mad, the curly haired man remained calm and cool in front of the cameras and come morning time instantly worked on rebuilding his relationships with those that had essentially screwed him over. He immediately spoke with Hannah, who was happy to have pulled off a big move against Michelle but told her old ally that she would let him know of a future plan going against him and his allies. He also had a talk with Adam in the water, where the homeless shelter manager felt it was necessary to disclose that Jay and his friends were on the bottom, allowing the Millennial to gain more information that he could use to his advantage. In this time he also managed to keep a very low-key yet close relationship with his old Ika Bula friends, Bret and Sunday, which ended up helping to save him in the vote. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The point that needs to be relayed right now is that Jay very well may be the best strategic player on that island. Zeke Smith has shown a great aptitude for making social bonds and keeping himself out of danger, but it is Jay who has impressed on more than one occassion this season and although voting out Michaela before the merge may have killed his game, he continues to show more fight and more hunger to stay in it than anyone else on that island and could be starting to emerge as a real contender to win this game, even despite his precarious position at the bottom of the pecking order.

Sunday Rocks The Boat

As if things weren’t already complicated enough this season, a new plan emerged this week in the mind of Sunday Burquest to eliminate her old pal, Jessica Lewis. Sunday and Jessica instantly clicked on the Gen X tribe and developed a close bond that was instrumental in Paul’s elimination from the game. However, since the swap, they’ve grown further and further apart and now that the merge has arrived and they haven’t really been able to patch things up again it has led Sunday to feel as though she simply can’t trust her old ally. So with her connection to Jay already in place from their time together at Ika Bula, she decided to make a plan with the three boys on the bottom to get Jess out.

It’s still a bit unclear exactly why Sunday felt threatend by Jessica Lewis as the lawyer clearly was not coming after her, but regardless of the reason it would not have been a smart move for Sunday to rock the boat and take out an ally for her at this point in the game. There are three massive targets in Will, Jay and Taylor that still need to be eliminated from the game and Jess is one of the least threatening people that Sunday has to worry about at this moment in time. The mother from Minnesota for the time being should just sit back, relax and not make any waves as nobody in their right mind would come after her at this point if she wasn’t doing anything. The time to make a big move will come but that time certainly isn’t now and if this plan fails, she could have easily just lost the game.

The Immunity Challenge and a Crazy Tribal Council

At the immunity challenge contestants had to balance a ball ontop of a coat hanger like item while standing on a balance beam. They were also given the chance before the challenge began to opt out and eat instead which both Will and Zeke took. As the audience collectively yawned, confessional-less Ken took the honour of having the necklace for the night outlasting Taylor and Jay for the final prize.

Although the challenge was as boring as ever, the pre-tribal rumblings and tribal council itself were anything but. As the majority alliance (Ken, Chris, David, Jessica, Sunday, Bret, Zeke, Adam, and Hannah) made plans to split the vote between Jay and Taylor, the two boys continued to grow the targets on their backs by persisting to eat the stolen food from the rest of the tribe. However, Jay also continued to stand out in a positive light, giving a confessional about what he was going to do with the hidden immunity idol that night and if he was going to play it, give it to Taylor, wear it to tribal council or keep it to himself and leave it in his pocket. Before the vote, Sunday also let the curly haired man know of where the votes were going, which allowed him to correctly analyze the situation he was in and keep the immunity idol for another day. This is just another example of how the positive relationships that Jay has made in this game continue to keep him alive.

Then the episode shifted gears to a highly entertaining tribal council. Soon after the conversations of the evening began, Taylor told everyone what they had already known, that he had stolen food from the rest of the tribe, but then preceded to tell everyone about Adam’s advantage, hoping to put the target on someone else’s back instead of his own. Although this couldn’t help save Taylor in the end, it was highly entertaining and also probably ended any hopes Adam had at winning the game as now not only does everyone know about his meaningless advantage, they also don’t see him as a trustworthy, rational player. Through all of this, Zeke and Ken kept queit which is exactly the right thing to do in instances like this. Finally in a non-shocking fashion, Taylor was sent home by a 7-4-1 vote.

I initially thought that Taylor’s elimination was more good gameplay from Jay and that he had convinced Will to vote for Taylor and then did so himself as well, sending his ally home. But after analyzing the votes, it seems as though the majority tribe divided the votes intentionally with 6 going the way of Taylor and 3 going the way of Jay, so that even if Jay, Taylor and Will voted together that their actual target in Taylor would still be sent home. So Will probably thinking that the vote was on Jay, tried to go with the majority increasing that number up to four and Jay trying to send his buddy home added another vote for the majority towards Taylor making it a 7-4-1 vote with Taylor taking one final shot at Adam.

It must be said that Jay has done a remarkable job to keep in good name with every single person on the island and that at the start of the merge the edit began to set up a battle between him and the other person who has done the exact same thing out there in Zeke. A Zeke vs. Jay battle is coming soon, especially if they can’t figure out a way to work together next episode. Although Jay grows more and more on me as a character every episode, I can’t help but feel that if this battle ensues that the mustached male will be the one to come out on top.

Confessional Count – Episode 9

Episode 9 saw Sunday regain some airtime after weeks of unspokenness while Jay Starett received the most confessionals in an episode for the first time this season. Here is where we stand after nine episodes of Survivor Millennials vs. Gen X.

CASTAWAY

CONFESSIONALS

TONE

RUNNING TOTAL

Jay Starett

6

Positive

24

Taylor Lee Stocker

4

Negative

21

Sunday Burquest

3

–

8

David Wright

2

–

34

Adam Klein

2

Negative

25

Hannah Shapiro

2

–

10

Zeke Smith

1

–

22

Chris Hammons

1

–

17

Bret LaBelle

1

–

9

Will Wahl

1

–

7

Ken McNickle

0

DNS

12

Jessica Lewis

0

DNS

10

Sunday’s sudden spike in visibility after going missing for so long might mean she’s going home soon while Ken’s invisibility continues to actually mean good things for his future in this game because of his strong edit before the merge. Bret received a confessional about how drunk he was at the reward, so that was nice, while this season’s massive characters like Taylor, Adam and David continued to receive more deserved air time.

Well it’s another interesting week in the Survivor books in terms of Edgic. Since the merge, the edit of characters like Ken, Jessica and Adam have really gone south, while other characters like Bret and Hannah have really started to come out of their shell. Here are my Edgic ratings for episode 9 of Survivor 33.

CASTAWAY

VISIBILTIY

TONE

EDGIC

Jay Starett

5

Positive

CP

Taylor Lee Stocker

5

Negative

OTT

Adam Klein

5

–

OTT

Hannah Shapiro

3

–

CP

Sunday Burquest

3

Negative

CP

David Wright

3

–

MOR

Zeke Smith

2

–

UTR

Chris Hammons

2

–

UTR

Bret LaBelle

2

–

MOR

Will Wahl

2

–

UTR

Ken McNickle

1

DNS

INV

Jessica Lewis

1

DNS

INV

Ken has completely disappeared off the face of the planet! Where has he gone these past few weeks? He was The Mastermind‘s top contender to win for seven episode but hasn’t been shown giving a single confessional since the start of the merge! This still doesn’t take him out of the equation in terms of who could possibly win this season but it continues to put his chances in doubt. Jay on the other hand continues to come across amazingly well and everything seems to be going through either his or David’s eyes at the moment. He did a tremendous job in his conversations with Hannah to try and rebuild his relationship with her and was also talked about fondly by both Sunday and Taylor. Hannah meanwhile has also started to earn a positive story arch. She recieved the hero music this episode and also was shown talking about the Michelle vote as if it was somehow her idea and her big move even though it was nothing of the sorts! Hannah is starting to receive what I call “The Final Three Edit” ~ the edit that suggests she will make it to the finals but won’t have what it takes to win.

The Winner’s Edit

Anonymous Ken? Where have you gone! You were our winner pick for seven episodes! And now you haven’t even spoken in three? So that again leaves the question: Who on earth is going to win this season? It is still a mystery! Is it Jay? Is it Zeke? Is it David? Who knows!

The Mastermind has a hunch but it is still far too close to call at this point and after both Kaoh Rong and Worlds Apart received rightful criticism for their predictable winner, you have to give the editors credit for doing a better job at hiding the winner. With that being said, I have to stick with David (pictured above). He continues to be the one to narrate what is going on even when it isn’t necessary at all for him to be that person. For example, the producers could have easily shown Chris, Ken, Jessica or anyone else talking about the plan for the vote but instead it was David who let the audience know what was going to happen. So since the producers continue to persist with David as the primary narrator for all of the events that seem to matter in the game, the former Family Guy writer continues to look the strongest contender to win.

I love Jay’s edit as well but I don’t see a path for him to make it to the end. He’ll always be thought of as the biggest target out there than anyone else and even if he starts to go on an immunity run he’ll still be susceptible to elimination due to this massive Joe Anglim sized target on his back. Zeke is one to keep an eye on as well but his edit has been far too up and down whereas David’s has been very constantly smooth ever since the craziness that he displayed in episode 1.

Something that also has to be noted in regards to the Edit is that Adam has officially lost this game. Adam was always one that The Mastermind was keeping an eye on and was always a primary narrator in the season as well but these past few episodes he has gotten way too far ahead of himself and has made some crucial errors that has led to nearly everyone on the island losing trust in him. He could still regain that trust as it hasn’t been lost for good Mike Holloway style, but his position is significantly weaker now than it was coming into the merge.

Next Time On Survivor

Next time on Survivor, things start to get a little bit crazy as the majority alliance make plans to turn on each other. We already saw a brief glimpse into this notion with Sunday’s confessionals this episode and this may be setting up all kinds of different eliminations next episode. David was shown in the preview saying “We’re taking out Chris” followed by Chris saying “We’re taking out Jess” so the vote could go in a number of different directions and this may be the hardest one to call so far. However, I am going to make the call that somehow Jay, Will and Adam survive another day in the game despite their respective mistakes and that Jessica Lewis is sent home by the grace of Sunday who manages to pull Jay and Will on to her side for the time being.

The other noteworthy thing about the preview for next week’s episode was Will telling Zeke about Jay’s idol. Zeke then went on to tell David of this information, who told Chris, who told Bret and so it’s looking like next episode Jay’s idol will no longer be a secret. However, this may not be a bad thing as I think it will scare some people into voting against him for a couple of rounds. That being said, if Will does tell Zeke this information next episode, it will be a catastrophic play on his part as it was never his information to disclose and could end up increasing the target on their backs.

Conclusion

Although episode 9 wasn’t as stellar as it’s predecessor “I’m The Kingpin”, it still ends with massive implications on where the rest of the season is headed. For the time being however, Taylor will be rememered in the Survivor community for a very long time. Although a terrible player and having almost every single thing he has said repeated back on this blog because of how outlandish it was, he was a very entertaining character to watch and did make his mark on the season in a positive manner. Taylor was stupidly hilarious. You often see the dumb goofball archetype on TV, but very rarely do you see one on Survivor, or Reality game shows in general for that matter. So although I cringed at nearly half the things that he said, he will definitely be someone from this season that will definitely be rememberd.

Who do you think will be voted out next time? Comment below to share your thoughts and click the follow button to the right of your screen for more articles like this every single week.